ATLANTA — The mother of Ahmaud Arbery spoke Thursday during a memorial run in honor of her son along the Atlanta BeltLine. She's still dealing with the pain three years later but had the love of the Atlanta running community around her.
"I have to say that it's been a really really hard long draining," Ahmaud Arbery's mother Wanda Cooper-Jones tearfully said. "It's been hard."
It's been three years since Wanda Cooper-Jones lost her son, but the pain in her voice is still fresh.
"Ahmaud was out on a run, he got up that Sunday morning and he started to do laundry, he got up and ran thinking he would return, he never returned," she said.
In February 2020, Arbery, a young Black man, was chased and gunned down by three white men in Brunswick, Georgia – less than three months before his 26th birthday.
"And each time I think about that, it breaks my heart," Cooper-Jones said.
Hundreds of runners in Atlanta of all backgrounds gathered on the BeltLine for a 2.23-mile run – commemorating what's now known officially in the state of Georgia as Ahmaud Arbery Day.
The memorial run in Atlanta began on what would have been Ahmaud’s 26th birthday, May 8, 2020. South Fulton Running Partners gathered for the run.
Since then, the run has grown to include other run clubs like Black Men Run, Movers and Pacers, and Laceup Fitness. The memorial run isn’t exclusive to Atlanta. Runners around the world are participating -- posting photos of their run with the hashtag #irunwithmaud.
Cynthia Barren with South Fulton Running Partners said the day is bringing up a conversation about race in America.
"People have a tendency to shy away from those conversations and I know that they are difficult to have for some," Barren said. "But it's important so that they don't keep repeating that same crime, the same offense, just a different name."
While runners around the world spent Thursday keeping Ahmaud's name alive, his mother continues to heal from the pain of his death.
"Today is a very good day because we now have justice for Ahmaud on state and federal levels, but in the midst of that my heart is still broken," she said.